Last Tuesday, Suzette and I had the opportunity to attend Hubbub, an event put on by the City of Vancouver’s CityStudio team. Our client projects – City Food, and Lawn Sprinkling – are part of a larger program (CityStudio) in which students from six Vancouver schools are given the chance to work on a project that might be implemented by the city. We met fine arts students from Emily Carr, engineering students from UBC, business students from SFU, and lots more.
We were asked to speak for two minutes about our client projects and what we’re aiming to achieve through them, and then we got to hear about the other projects CityStudio has on the go. Given that both of our client projects are trying to address a pretty big social marketing issue, I was surprised to hear what the other teams were working on. For example, one group was advocating for more street painting in Vancouver. To me, it sounded like an unlikely project at first, until I saw a photo of a street painting in Mount Pleasant that indicated where a creek used to be. I think this is a pretty creative way of showing residents what used to lie under the street:
Other teams were working on equally interesting projects, such as campaigning to bring public firepits to Vancouver beaches, or suggesting a master plan for the rejuvenation of an industrial area in the city.
It was really great to see how CityStudio is reaching out to students to get their input on ways to improve our city. The program has been running since 2011, and has seen over 900 students get involved. Some of these students were able to work on innovative projects at CityStudio for an entire semester (while earning 15 credits). I think this is a great program, and one that makes a lot of sense. University students need to get relevant work experience at a reputable employer, and the City of Vancouver needs help coming up with innovative ways to make our city a better place. It’s the perfect win-win situation. I only wish that CityStudio made more of an effort to tell University students about the full semester program, because I think it’s something that a lot of students would be interested in, if they were made aware of it.
Sounds like a great event! I wish I would have known about the full semester program as well. Sounds really cool. I think it’s amazing that our government takes such a forward stance on sustainability issues. Being from Montreal, where sustainability is never even a topic of discussion, I love hearing about all the cool projects being supported by the City of Vancouver. I also think that getting students involved is absolutely the right way to go. I hope you’re enjoying your client project, it sounds like it’s a fun one!